Bronwyn Coffeen and John David Mercer pose for a wet plate collodion portrait on their wedding day in Mobile, Ala., Saturday, July 19, 2014. The 8×10 tintype image was produced using a vintage 1896 view camera with an 1880 brass petzval lens.
The technical journey photography has taken me on over the past twenty years has been nothing short of remarkable. I’ve gone from shooting 35mm film on a Canon AE-1 for the Block Jr. High yearbook, to shooting on my first digital camera in high school that had a whopping 1/3 megapixel (yes, one-third of one megapixel) resolution, to clacking away at ten frames-per-second on the latest Canon 1-series digital bodies. While digital technology has allowed me to obtain images that would have been impossible to capture as cleanly on any other format, there’s something about the digital workflow that lacks soul. I can’t hold 1’s and 0’s in my hand. I can’t accidentally drop and scratch a .jpeg file. I can’t smell a histogram.
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Men’s bobsled competitors head down the track and the Sanki Sliding Center during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, Sunday, February 16, 2014.
It’s been just over two months since I returned from my trip to Mother Russia to document the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, a trip that will always be among the top experiences I’ve had in my life. And, if you can keep something between you and me, it’s been roughly the same amount of time since I developed all 34 sheets of the Kodak Tri-X 320 4×5 film I shot throughout the games. This begs the question, “Why did you wait two months to share those images here?”
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A large sign in the likeness of a duck, which used to rotate above a car dealership, at The Neon Museum in Las Vegas.
Each afternoon, as I gaze into the mirror while getting ready for the day, I try and imagine that at least some of my physical characteristics are in line with male models on the cover of GQ. The sobering reality is that I probably share more characteristics with the common moth. For, as long as I can remember, I’ve been uncontrollably attracted to all things that illuminate.
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Posted in
Lighting Design,
Photography,
Travel on March 6th, 2014.
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Visitors to the Olympic Cauldron and rings at the Olympic Park in the coastal cluster of Sochi / Adler.
It’s great to be writing one of my last 2014 Winter Olympics blogs from the comfort of my own bed in the United States. So what if it’s 2:40 pm? Judge lest ye be judged! After going nonstop for three weeks, this time to recharge my batteries was much needed and earned.
I initially set out to do a blog per day while I was in Russia, but things during the last week started to get really tiring. Late night finishes followed by early morning wake-ups for the next event left me with a choice of getting four hours of sleep, or getting two and posting a blog. To keep my health and sanity in check, I chose the former.
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